Bucks &amp; Oxon

Amazingly I was at the school from about 1959 til I around 1964 ( end of First year ) when my dad sadly left Harwell where he was a civil engineer and we moved to London . My dad wasn’t a catholic, though my mum and I were, but even all that time ago &#8211; and it WAS still run by the Sisters of Mercy then &#8211; I liked the fact that there were lots of ‘ non Catholics ‘ in the school . Many of the boarders had fathers in the RAF. 
The school has changed a lot &#8211; now coed throughout and with swimming pool etc &#8211; but I still remember my years in Abingdon and my time at the school as the happiest of my life. 
Some of the girls &#8211; even with the more limited opportunities available to women at that time &#8211; went on to have amazing careers eg Sharon Bowles, who was in my class and whose father at Harwell was my dad’s boss !

Hi there, thanks very much for taking the time to comment &#8211; I know that Muddy readers find this kind of feedback really useful. Kindest, Hero.

Hi Eileen, thanks very much for taking the time to comment. I&#8217;ll feed back to Our Lady&#8217;s Abingdon, I&#8217;m sure they&#8217;ll be thrilled to hear that. Kindest, Hero

On. Monday 4th March, I was shopping in Abingdon when I was approached by one of the small groups of boys/girls from your school and asked VERY POLITELY if I would mind helping with a brief questionnaire. The four boys took turns to ask the questions, thanking me for each answer. The questions appeared to be connected to carbon footprint assessment. Impressive manners, non aggressive approach, well presented children. I watched the rest of their peers approaching people in the marketplace with the same gentle zeal. What more could society hope for&#8230;&#8230;.. Well done with these terrific children. Eileen Kirby, Steventon.

We are new to OLA, but very happy because my son has settled in to Year 7 remarkably quickly. He loves DT and Art, has joined Tech Club and Garage Band club, and has some really nice, down-to-earth friends. He is not naturally keen on swimming, but has thoroughly enjoyed his swimming lessons in spite of that &#8211; instilling confidence and having fun seem to be at the heart of all the sports lessons. At the new parents drinks evening everyone said that their children were settled and happy &#8211; brilliant for only 3 weeks into secondary school. The work is a definite step up from Primary, but there is lots of support to help them rise to the challenge. We are pleased!

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="666" src="https://bucksoxon.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/08/OLA-day-1-0165-sm.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-120787" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/08/OLA-day-1-0165-sm.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/08/OLA-day-1-0165-sm-360x240.jpg 360w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/08/OLA-day-1-0165-sm-720x480.jpg 720w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/08/OLA-day-1-0165-sm-150x100.jpg 150w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/08/OLA-day-1-0165-sm-788x525.jpg 788w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



WHAT? WHERE?



<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.olab.org.uk" target="_blank">Our Lady&#8217;s Abingdon</a> school&nbsp;is a Catholic co-ed day school close to the centre of Abingdon (10 miles south of Oxford) for children 7-18 years old. Originally founded in 1860 by the Sisters of Mercy &#8211; a religious order of Catholic sisters established in Ireland &#8211; it started as two separate schools, one for girls and one for boys, until boys were welcomed into the Senior School for the first time in 2009.&nbsp;Then, in 2013 the whole school became co-educational, which is how it is today (<a href="https://www.ola.org.uk/about-us/co-education/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="you can read about why here (opens in a new tab)">you can read about why here</a>). Only 27% of children who come here now are Catholic, with all&nbsp;religions/non-religions welcome. The school houses&nbsp;280 senior children and 70 juniors&nbsp;on a&nbsp;compact 7.5-acre site that is dominated by a grand red brick Victorian mansion block, with more recent additions bolted on over time.



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FACILITIES



It&#8217;s a small site, so the roll call of facilities isn&#8217;t huge. Sports-wise, the onsite 25 metre indoor&nbsp;swimming pool is the star attraction here, with all kids having lessons twice a week for Y3-6 in lower school and&nbsp;once a week&nbsp;in the senior school and kids as young as 9 able to join the after school swimming club. This is a major boon for the school &#8211; how many of us struggle to get our kids in the pool every week? There’s a relatively new multi-use games area and a field across the road that’s used for a variety of sports, plus Abingdon Vale cricket club and Tilsey Park are used for cricket and hockey respectively.



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<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="750" src="https://bucksoxon.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/09/thumbnail_IMG_0790.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-120791" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/09/thumbnail_IMG_0790.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/09/thumbnail_IMG_0790-360x270.jpg 360w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/09/thumbnail_IMG_0790-667x500.jpg 667w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/09/thumbnail_IMG_0790-150x113.jpg 150w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/09/thumbnail_IMG_0790-700x525.jpg 700w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



All children in senior school play a musical instrument&nbsp;in their first year&nbsp;and the&nbsp;orchestra is small but keen (an extensive music scholarship programme encourages the talented). There’s definitely a sense of everyone pitching in here, a necessity no doubt with the numbers that also makes it a strong plus – everyone gets a go. Similarly, in drama, there&#8217;s a &#8216;give it a go&#8217; mentality, with productions on a stage (with lighting rig) in the auditorium.



<figure class="wp-block-image alignnone size-full wp-image-62811"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="750" src="https://bucksoxon.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/02/Our-Ladys-Abingdon-dress-up-clothes.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-62811" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/02/Our-Ladys-Abingdon-dress-up-clothes.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/02/Our-Ladys-Abingdon-dress-up-clothes-150x113.jpg 150w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/02/Our-Ladys-Abingdon-dress-up-clothes-300x225.jpg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/02/Our-Ladys-Abingdon-dress-up-clothes-667x500.jpg 667w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Costumes at the ready</figcaption></figure>



Other&nbsp;developments include a new DT centre, new science labs, new museum, refurbed dining area (below) and a major redevelopment of the Sixth Form Centre which looks pretty natty.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="750" src="https://bucksoxon.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/02/Our-Ladys-Abingdon-dining-room.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-62810" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/02/Our-Ladys-Abingdon-dining-room.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/02/Our-Ladys-Abingdon-dining-room-150x113.jpg 150w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/02/Our-Ladys-Abingdon-dining-room-300x225.jpg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/02/Our-Ladys-Abingdon-dining-room-667x500.jpg 667w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



THE ACADEMICS



Take one small school, deliver small class sizes – only&nbsp;17&nbsp;per class (smaller still at GSCE and A level)&nbsp;&#8211; and bonza, OLA&nbsp;delivers some healthy GSCE and A level results. 







In 2024 for GSCE, just under half of grades were 9-7 (A*-A) and seven pupils scored straight 9-7 grades. 91% of students were accepted to either their firm or insurance university in 2024, including many Russell Group mentions. A* grades were at 16% and two-thirds of students achieved a top grade in at least one of their subjects. That said, there’s no question that the major selling point for Our Lady’s Abingdon is its pastoral care, described as an &#8216;excellent pastoral support system&#8217; in the <a href="https://www.ola.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/OLA_EQI_Report_2023.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">May 2023 ISI report. </a>



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There&#8217;s definitely a gentle, inclusive, family atmosphere here &#8211; unusually children are encouraged to come for two taster days to make sure they like the school and settle in well. The ethos is strongly anti-hothouse, and the head was upfront that pastoral care comes first and everything else follows. Five years ago, that view was unfashionable, but in the light of today&#8217;s stressed and anxious children it&#8217;s become a major selling point for the school.



THE HEAD



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The Head of the school, Daniel Gibbons, has been in situ since Sept 2021, and is jolly and upbeat and honest about where the school is at – he’s not trying to push OLA up academic league tables, and is more much more interested in the value-added potential for each pupil. 



QUIRKS



I’m not&nbsp;sure&nbsp;Catholicism counts as a quirk exactly but as one of only two Catholic day schools in Oxfordshire it’s certainly a USP. There’s&nbsp;twice termly&nbsp;mass for the older kids and a Catholic-strong RE curriculum but the emphasis is on inclusiveness and Christian virtues.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="667" src="https://bucksoxon.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/02/our-ladys-chapel.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-62695" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/02/our-ladys-chapel.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/02/our-ladys-chapel-150x100.jpg 150w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/02/our-ladys-chapel-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/02/our-ladys-chapel-720x480.jpg 720w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



FEES



Slightly under the Oxfordshire average I’d say. Years 3-4: £4145 per term; Years 5-6: £4975 per term; and Senior School fees £ 6175 per term. Learning Support Individual lessons start from £450 per term.



WORD ON THE GROUND



Pastorally excellent is the feedback from parents, who delight in their happy, non-nutty kids. The physical constraints of the school site can be frustrating (terrible drop off issues on a morning as the car park is tiny) but most parents I&#8217;ve been in touch with know what they have bought into here and are happy with the mix of small classes, individual care and a lack of pressure.



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THE MUDDY VERDICT



Good for:&nbsp;Kids who could benefit from a nurturing, supportive, non-hot-house style school.&nbsp;Joiner inners &#8211; with small numbers, comes opportunity (and necessity) to play instruments, have a go at sports and be part of the community. The central town location gives older children the chance for some autonomy.



Not for:&nbsp;Big fish who need an even bigger pond &#8211; this small, gentle school might not deliver the thrashing space&nbsp;your child&nbsp;needs.



Dare to disagree?&nbsp;Be my guest! Book the next Open events <a href="https://www.ola.org.uk/admissions/visits-and-open-events/">here</a>. There is also a Year 5 Experience day in March each year. Children looking to come to OLA for Years 3-6 can come for a personal taster day whenever they like.



<a href="http://www.olab.org.uk/Open-Morning" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Our Lady&#8217;s Abingdon</a>, Radley Road, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, OX14 3PS.&nbsp;Tel:&nbsp;<a href="tel:01235%20524658">01235 524658</a>.

Our Lady’s Abingdon, South Oxon

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